The present invention relates to an apparatus for feeding articles to an accumulation area comprising at least one conveyor for feeding the articles forming a conveyor path to said area and means for optionally turning said articles by substantially 180 degrees for shifting end for end before the articles arrive to said accumulation area, as well as a method for feeding articles to an accumulation area, in which the articles are optionally turned by substantially 180 degrees for shifting end for end before arriving to said accumulation area.
The invention is directed to feeding articles of any type to an area for accumulation thereof, but it will hereinafter be explained for the case of feeding articles in the form of bread, preferably having an elongated shape, such as loaves, to an area, where they are accumulated, preferably for being loaded into a box being placed in said area according to a desired pattern.
Thus, the invention relates to such a feeding apparatus making it possible to have articles fed to the accumulation area with a certain orientation or changing this orientation by substantially 180 degrees. This may for instance be done for having the openings of plastic bags enclosing said articles directed towards each other when the articles are to be arranged in two parallel rows in said accumulation area. This may for instance be desired for protecting these openings from external influences, such as by the walls of a box or container into which they are to be loaded.
A known apparatus of this type includes a turntable arranged in said conveyor path, so that a conveyor will feed the articles to the turntable and a pusher will push the articles onto the turntable, whereupon the turntable will turn by 180 degrees and then the pusher will push the articles off the turntable onto a conveyor located in the conveyor path downstream thereof. As an alternative the articles may be pushed by said pusher or rake over the turntable without being turned. A disadvantage of this apparatus is that the pushing of the articles onto and off the turntable is time consuming, so that the number of articles possible to be fed per time unit to said accumulation area will decrease as a consequence of the provision of said turntable for making said turning possible.
Another apparatus of this type has a turntable provided with recesses for wheels arranged on driven axles, so that the turntable part of the conveyor path will also act as a conveyor when the wheels are driven. Accordingly, no pusher is needed for feeding the articles over said turntable. When articles are to be turned the turntable is lifted so much that the wheels will no longer extend through said recesses, and the turntable may then be turned. A disadvantage of this apparatus is that the wheels provide a comparatively small support surface for said articles in comparison with for instance a belt conveyor, and if for instance loaves enclosed in plastic bags are fed, a bag may erroneously be fed or get stuck in a wheel disturbing the entire procedure and possibly requiring an interruption of the operation of the apparatus, which is troublesome and also may involve costs.
An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus of the type defined in the introduction, which is improved in at least some aspect with respect to such apparatuses already known.
This object is according to the invention obtained by providing such an apparatus, in which said conveyor path has a curved section interconnecting a first conveyor path section in the feeding direction upstream of the curved section and a second conveyor path section downstream thereof extending substantially in parallel with each other, the apparatus further comprising means for transferring said articles from said first section transversely to the feeding direction of the latter over to said second section by-passing said curved section and a control arrangement adapted to control said transferring means to optionally transfer articles from the first to the second conveyor path section by-passing the curved section or letting them pass through the curved section.
This means that said articles may very efficiently, i.e. rapidly, without any delay caused by said turning be fed to said accumulation area by feeding the articles through said curved section or take a short-cut by said transferring means resulting in an automatic turning of the articles by 180 degrees with respect to the articles passing through said curved section. It is pointed out that xe2x80x9ctransferringxe2x80x9d here is defined as a translatory movement of the articles in the direction in question. It is possible to rapidly obtain many different patterns of articles in said accumulation area. This will be achieved for articles of varying shapes in a reliable manner by using covered conveyors, such as belt converors instead of wheels
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention said transferring means is adapted to push the articles from said first section to said second section.
It is also preferred to arrange means for optionally accumulating articles conveyed through the conveyor path before the transversal transfer thereof by said transferring means for transferring a plurality of articles simultaneously. This may for instance be accomplished by providing a separate conveyor of the conveyor path controllable to move step-wise for accumulating a new article for each step.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention the apparatus also comprises means for optionally turning said articles by substantially 90 degrees before the articles arrive to said accumulation area. This is a preferred feature, since it makes it possible to obtain a larger variety of accumulation pattern in said accumulation area for for instance loading the articles in a desired way in a box or container.
Said means for optionally turning said articles by substantially 90 degrees is advantageously operable to select turning direction, clockwise or counter-clockwise, for the articles, increasing the flexibility of the apparatus to form different patterns of articles in said accumulation area even more.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention said means for optionally turning articles by substantially 90 degrees is adapted to be controlled to form an obstacle to be hit by the articles thus turning them. and this means comprises according to another preferred embodiment of the invention an arm arranged laterally to the conveyor path and introducable into the conveyor path for being hit by said articles.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention the apparatus further comprises additional means for optionally transferring articles being in a mid-portion of said curved section extending substantially perpendicularly to said first and second sections in a direction being substantially in parallel with said first and second sections onto an intermediate support surface separating said first and second section. This means that these articles will then theoretically have been turned by substantially 90 degrees when they are in said mid-portion with respect to their orientation in said first section and 90 degrees less than the orientation they would have in said second section when not transferred to said intermediate support surface. Accordingly, the articles will in this way also be turned by 90 degrees. Furthermore, the apparatus preferably comprises means for transferring articles from said intermediate support surface in a direction substantially perpendicular to the extension of said second section onto the latter.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention the apparatus further comprises means for gathering articles located in said mid-portion by influencing them from both sides towards the centre of said mid-portion in a direction substantially perpendicular to the extension of said first and second sections before transferring them to said intermediate support surface by said additional transferring means. This means that a plurality of articles in this way turned by substantially 90 degrees may simultaneously be transferred to said intermediate support surface making it possible to obtain a high feeding speed without any noticeable delay caused by the turning resulting in this way.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention the conveyor path is arranged to arrive to said first section through a part upstream thereof extending in substantially the same direction as the first section forming a prolongation thereof, and according to another preferred embodiment of the invention said conveyor path is continued downstream of said accumulation area by a part extending in substantially the same direction as said second section. These embodiments are advantageous, since they simplify the construction of the apparatus and makes parts of the conveyor path easily accessible.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention said first, second and curved section of the conveyor path are formed by individually controllable conveyors. This means that it is possible to feed the articles differently in these sections for obtaining an optimum co-ordination of the movement of these conveyors for obtaining a certain pattern of articles in said accumulation area as fast and accurate as possible.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention the apparatus comprises an intermediate conveyor arranged in a space separating said first and second section and having the same feeding direction as said second section. This is preferred, since this means that articles arriving on the intermediate support surface formed by this intermediate conveyor may be fed thereby in a direction in parallel with the feeding direction of the second section of the conveyor path.
The invention also provides a method for feeding articles according to the appended independent method claim. The advantage of such a method and the methods according to the preferred embodiments of the invention defined in the dependent method claims will be clear from the above discussion of the apparatus according to the present invention.
The invention also relates to a computer program and a computer readable medium according to the corresponding appended claims. It is easily understood that the method according to the invention defined in the appended set of method claims is well suited to be carried out through program instructions from a processor which may be influenced by a computer program provided with the program steps in question.
Further advantages as well as advantageous features of the invention will appear from the following description and the other dependent claims.